Daycare in Basement? Advice Please!

[Ariana]

Thanks everyone for your response! I should have clarified...my brother having one of the basement rooms is an option, but currently 2 of my sons (8 and 11) share one of the basement bedrooms and my 3.5 year old daughter is in the other.

So either my brother takes my daughters room downstairs, daughter moves into our bedroom, and playroom upstairs stays the same. Or my brother moves into the playroom and I have to make the playroom be downstairs. Basically if I want to keep the rest of the house as it is, our daughter has to be in our room. If I want my daughter to still have her own room, I have to lose the upstairs playroom to the basement.

I don't think the basement is a licensing issue...although it doesn't have windows, down the hall there are the 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and store room all with window. It has proper vents and tons of recessed light (so it is bright, just not naturally).

Also, my brother is 22 and will be finishing up his last semester of college (he won't be moving in until September). He will be with us at a minimum until the new year, but unless he finds a job right away, it will be longer.

When I lived with my aunt at 22 I slept on a pull out couch in their basement. I didn't have a room at all!! Since you're doing him a huge favor I wouldn't put myself out by rearranging everything. I personally wouldn't put the daycare in a basement without windows for both your sake and the kids. 8 hours a day without natural light is not healthy IMO. All your brother is going to do is sleep down there and he'll be at school for the most part so why not set up a bed in your basement for him?

[bunnyslippers]

I would put your brother in the room in the basement with no windows. He'll be fine - I would love a nice dark place to sleep in peace and quiet!

[Sprouts]

I am a huge fan of natural light especially during winter months, when looking for child care (and I don't mean Ipto offend any basement day cares) I really was turned off by basement ones unless they had big windows, so I am def for putting ur brother there instead!

[Heidi]

How about putting your brother in your daughter's room, and putting your daughter in the daycare room? If she pretty much plays in there all the time, can you just make that her room? If she has special toys only for her, put those in the basement playroom for her?

The bed you put in there for her could double as a cozy corner for reading, etc. Just take off her personal blankets/pillows during the day, and put a big comforter over it...

[itlw8]

You said you rarely use the basement room... so leave the kids where they are get a futon and stick it in the basement room you would put the childcare in. He can change in the bathroom. get a screen to give him privacy.

Your kids should not be put out. You are doing him a HUGE favor. He can make do. He will move out faster that way also,

[Persephone]

I agree that you shouldn't have to put yourself out to have him stay with you for a short time.

Can your boys share a room? Or I like the idea of putting your girls bed in the play room and just leave it as that.

But my pick would be to just put a pull out of some kind in the basement area where you planned on doing child care, just put up some kind of screen so he can have some privacy. If all your kid's are doing down there are sleeping anyways, it shouldn't be a problem and he'll feel like he's out of the way. Plus this way if he's home during the day the daycare kids won't be bothering him.

[Daycare_Mama]

These are all great ideas. The only thing is that I don't mind offering him an actual bedroom - he will be helping out by paying some rent and being my assistant on the days he doesn't have class. I would prefer he has his own bedroom.

I did think about making some sort of divider in the basement (it is L shaped anyways, so could work)...BUT it would definitely be against fire code to have someone sleeping there and when licensing comes out and sees a makeshift bedroom in a basement with no legal windows, there's no way that would fly. So I just don't think that's an option.

I do like the idea of having her sleep in the playroom. That could actually work ... I just would worry about her getting possessive of her bed in there..hmmmm

[Abigail]

So you have a 3.5 year old daughter and two older boys all with basement bedrooms. Do they all have separate rooms or do your boys share a room?

Either way, keep everyone in a bedroom and keep your daycare upstairs. It will be such a hassle and headache to go up down up down up down. My entire basement (bi-level home, half above ground with tons of windows) is exclusively used for daycare. One bedroom is a kitchen room with a mini fridge and microwave but i need to bring down all the food for the day and bring it back up. Parents all have their separate entrance. I was not okay with parents coming in and walking up/down steps to get to our daycare. I have cats in the house and don't want parents letting them out. You'll be SO DEPRESSED if you move your main daycare room downstairs. If you don't believe me just try it and find out after two weeks it's horrible and move it all again! LOL

[Sprouts]

These are all great ideas. The only thing is that I don't mind offering him an actual bedroom - he will be helping out by paying some rent and being my assistant on the days he doesn't have class. I would prefer he has his own bedroom.

I did think about making some sort of divider in the basement (it is L shaped anyways, so could work)...BUT it would definitely be against fire code to have someone sleeping there and when licensing comes out and sees a makeshift bedroom in a basement with no legal windows, there's no way that would fly. So I just don't think that's an option.

I do like the idea of having her sleep in the playroom. That could actually work ... I just would worry about her getting possessive of her bed in there..hmmmm

Wouldn't licensing be more against having the daycare kids there instead? Can they tell you where family members sleep? If its not legally used for daycare then why would licensing be involved?

[SimpleMom]

I used to have my dc upstairs then we finished the basement. It's completely for DC. Love the look and feel of it. BUT I do miss the abundance of light upstairs (we have a TON of windows in my living room. It's really a hassle to get food up/down and the kids as well...esp. if they are really little. It does feel cooped up at times. I actually use both the basement and the upstairs now. We start out upstairs and have breakfast, get the SA's off to school. Then, we go downstairs and play/have activities and lessons, snack. THen, we move upstairs to go outdoors and come in for lunch. (I used to prep it all the night before, but that got to be too much. I needed to be done with DC after hours ended). and then we move down stairs for naps and pm snack. Back upstairs for outdoors and pick up.

Maybe have main play area downstairs, give your brother the playroom upstairs while he lives with you and use both up and down stairs?